The historic federal Build Back Better agenda proposes investing $4 trillion to upgrade our transportation infrastructure while also addressing two of our nation’s most pressing challenges: widening economic inequality and the worsening climate crisis.

It aims to create millions of well-paying, union jobs to help create a more sustainable, 21st century economy powered by renewable energy that reduces harmful greenhouse gas emissions and helps avert a climate crisis.

As negotiations continue, Congress must work to ensure the final law includes a new Civilian Climate Corps.

President Franklin Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, to put 3 million unemployed young people to work at the height of the Great Depression to address the Dust Bowl, an environmental catastrophe. Conservation workers built parks, fought forest fires, and planted trees for a stipend to support their families.

New Yorkers can still experience the CCC's legacy today. From Niagara Falls to Allegany State Park to Bear Mountain State Park, the CCC members helped build access to some of our most treasured natural areas. In the Catskills region, the members reforested and protected the Delaware River Valley.

The new Civilian Climate Corps would operate from the same models, connecting young people to job opportunities in growing conservation and green energy-related fields through an apprenticeship approach modeled after the building trades unions. Best of all, new Civilian Climate Corps would promote environmental justice by prioritizing communities that bear the biggest burden of climate change.

New York is primed to take full advantage of these proposed investments, which would build on leading initiatives in workforce development and environmental stewardship, like the Excelsior Conservation Corps. That program allows young New Yorkers to explore conservation careers while restoring greenspaces.

The Delaware River Watershed, including the portion in New York, should be at the top of the list of communities receiving funding. The watershed provides over 13 million people with clean drinking water, including 60 percent of the New York City water supply, and supports a $350 million annual tourism economy. This region is also home to one of the finest cold-water wild trout fisheries in the country.

In the Upper Delaware River, state and local governments have come together with nonprofits and local landowners in unique public-private partnerships which have enabled the conservation of our river resources. This includes securing more than $4.5 million for river conservation projects that improve flood resiliency and aquatic connectivity, protect aquatic habitat, safeguard water quality and provide new and enhanced access to the river in support of the river-based tourism economy.

These types of programs would be turbocharged by a Civilian Climate Corps, helping to create career pipelines in underserved communities by investing in projects that make our state more resilient and sustainable.

After years of delayed action on climate change, it’s time to dream big.

We look forward to working with Congress, including Rep. Delgado, to ensure the passage of an important new federal program that would help address our climate crisis and create opportunities for underserved youth.

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Jeff Skelding is executive director of the Friends of the Upper Delaware River. Josh Klainberg is the senior vice president of the New York League of Conservation Voters and an inaugural member of AmeriCorps*National Civilian Community Corps (’94).